Eastern Shoshone

Searching for an expert in topics like Native language preservation or the nuances of beadworking? A new in-the-works list from Wyoming Humanities aims to help build those sorts of bridges. Its goal is to connect those experts with educators and interested organizations, in order to create more informed programs, consultations and presentations.

The Wind River Development Fund received a $36 million grant to fund economic growth and strengthen Indigenous sovereignty on the Wind River Reservation.

Eastern Shoshone tribal member Jason Baldes has received the prestigious Wayfinder Award from the National Geographic Society for his work to restore bison to Indigenous lands. Baldes was one of fifteen global leaders who received the award, as well as the title of National Geographic Explorer this year.

The Eastern Shoshone Tribe debuted a new arbor at their annual powwow in Fort Washakie from June 21 to 23. The wooden structure offers shade for spectators and encircles dancers and singers, and offers room for the event to grow.

For the last seven years, Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game Director Arthur Lawson has been working to create more economic development and ecotourism on the Wind River Reservation through a bit of an unexpected avenue: fly fishing. Those efforts are the subject of a series of short films that will play at the Center for the Arts in Jackson on June 4.

The White Buffalo Recovery Center is a culturally-informed outpatient treatment center that supports Native community members who are recovering from addiction and substance abuse. This June, they’re launching a new version of Mending Broken Hearts, a bimonthly, three-day workshop that provides healing around grief, loss and intergenerational trauma. In the past, the program has been just for adults, but now the workshop is expanding to include the whole family.

On a sunny May morning, more than a 100 fifth graders played and explored in an open grassy clearing, surrounded by pine trees on the banks of the rushing Buffalo Fork River. They were attending the annual Blackrock Field Camp, a two-day educational event put on by the U.S. Forest Service each year for students from elementary schools on the Wind River Reservation.

Land-grant universities, like the University of Wyoming (UW), largely got their start on land taken from Native peoples – and many of these schools continue to benefit from those lands today. Recently, some have started free tuition waivers for Native students as a way to acknowledge this history. Members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes have been advocating for the same to happen at UW.

On the afternoon of May 7, elders, kids and people of all ages gathered around a long table at the Frank B. Wise building in Fort Washakie. The group of roughly forty people were there to share input on design plans for a building that could house a new museum and cultural center for the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.

A federal agency wants to give up management of just under 60,000 acres of land on the Wind River Reservation.